Rivalling
by like.CSI.real
Summary: Rachel and Jesse are on opposing teams, both very determined that they're going to win. They hate each other. Or at least they thought they did.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N – so, I am like OBSESSED with glee, and 'Hi!' this is my first story! I love, love, love , and I'm shocked at the amount of ONE-SHOTS they have, they need a real story!**

**So I'll give it too you:)**

**Pairing: Jesse/Rachel…eventually:)**

**(Finn and Rachel were NEVER together in my version of glee) **

**Summary: Jesse and Rachel are rivals, and they're pretty certain they hate each other…or do they?**

"Mr Shue, I do not find this necessary in the slightest, how is going to see our competition at regionals going to boost our confidence as a club at all?" Rachel hissed when she was called into THEIR auditorium to listen to Vocal Adrenaline's little performance. Rachel knew just how well Vocal Adrenaline were, and this being not far away from Regionals, she would not let her team be put down by a group of souless automatons.

"Maybe it will inspire us to work harder," Mr Shue gave her a look that screamed 'there was nothing I could do', so Rachel just huffed and folded her arms. The main singer came out and stood in front of the rest, as if he was their leader.

He had wavy, yet seriously styled, brown hair, and green-blue eyes. Rachel was sure that she was the only one in this room who knew him as Jesse St. James. She recognized him from his performance at sectionals when Rachel was spying at potential teams to face at regionals, they were good, no, they were amazing, and that scared Rachel.

"I expect you all to know my name," he smirked, "but I'm going to say it anyway. I am Jesse St. James, I would come down and shake your hand, but I don't want your failure to rub off on me." The rest of Vocal Adrenaline chuckled along with them, when in reality the joke wasn't even funny. She could hear Mercedes whisper 'what?' from behind her.

Rachel couldn't help but glare at him for his cocky behavior. She was about to say something but Finn, another member of the glee club, spoke up.

"Well what are you doing here, in OUR auditorium?" He said, gesturing to the hall. Finn was the male lead of New Directions, and although Rachel didn't want to admit it, Finn just wasn't able to keep up with her vocally, but he was nice, stupid, but nice all the same, so she didn't grumble.

"The chat rooms say that you are ripe to topple us, so we just wanted to show you something we prepared a few days ago," Jesse glared back at us before him and the rest of Vocal Adrenaline took positions, and the music kicked off.

They performed Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust'. It hurt Rachel to admit that they did sound pretty amazing, and that it was definitely freaking her team out by them performing. Good thing Rachel had a good poker face. The rest of New Directions weren't so calm and steady. Finn was practically having a panic attack and half of the club had their mouths to the ground.

_way to be subtle guys_.

New Directions clapped politely when the show was over, then quickly leaving the auditorium before anything else can damage their pride. Rachel remained seated, raising an eyebrow at the star of the show. He was the only one left standing on the stage. It was eerie being just with Jesse; he had an aura around him that made Rachel nervous.

"What did you think? Did you get the message that you're just going to be another group we will demolish at regionals?" Jesse smirked again, something that apparently appeared on his face quite often.

Rachel stood up, smiling tightly.

"The overall performance was good, but it lacked emotion, and personally that's what MADE queen, pretty much destroying everything Freddie Mercury believed in, but it was a tough song to sing, I'll give you that," Rachel shrugged, about to walk off before Jesse interrupted.

"Are you serious? I had no emotional depth, did you NOT see me?" He argued, pointing back to the stage as he was coming down the steps and walking right up to her. Rachel gave a small pitiful laugh.

"I saw you alright, you dominate the stage, and BARELY give anyone else a chance to perform," she scolded, proud at herself for managing to stand up to thee Jesse St. James, who was now currently insulted to the point of shock.

"Like how you gave away the entire spotlight in sectionals? I was there, I saw you," Jesse recovered, quirking an eyebrow up at her.

"Actually, no, I was given that solo because the song Mercedes was going to sing was taken when our set list was leaked. I saw you at your sectionals as well, by the way, and I was shocked at how ROBOTIC you were!" Rachel ranted, pointing her finger, and due to the closeness between them, it poked his chest. "Don't you realize that when you sing, you're meant to _feel _something, otherwise there is just no point in singing! The only bond it seems you have with your teammates is through your talent!"

"Ah Rachel Berry, you're definitely different from what I imagined you, you're even more stuck up and pathetic than I thought you were." Jesse snarled, crossing his arms over his Jesse. Rachel gasped; she wasn't going to take this.

"Well, I didn't want to have to say this, but you lack emotion practically ALL of the time, and sometimes you can't sing and dance at the same time!" She practically shrieked at him, taking in his horrified expression.

"No one says that too Jesse St. James." His expression hardens, "I won't stand for this. I'm leaving." he announced, turning around and making a dramatic exit.

"Watch how a REAL dramatic exit is!" Rachel huffed, tossing her hair behind her shoulder, and walking in the opposite direction of the rude Jesse St. James, and not looking back.

* * *

This put Rachel in a bad mood for the rest of the day, considering the fact that Vocal Adrenaline are very good AND her confrontation with Jesse, it was a little bit more than she usually handles. It made that daily slushy just a bit more irritating than usual.

What made it worse that her team were moping around like a bunch of nothings, depressed about their performance? Not acceptable. Even Mr. Shue sat at the piano, a little lost for words.

"I am so disappointed by the lack of team spirit in this room. So what if Vocal Adrenaline perform a…decent performance to us? By getting in a funk, we are doing exactly what we want them to do!" Rachel exclaimed, standing up and walking to the centre of the room.

"What do you suppose we do then?" Kurt manages to ask, flicking his fringe back and sighing.

"I say we get even. I say we show Vocal Adrenaline what we're made of." Rachel's smile began to grow before she had the rest of the club nodding and smiling too.

Jesse St. James was NOT going to take away regionals from her with his greedy hands.

**A/N – aaaaand here you go:) It will be continued, I have so many idea's! **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N – Thank you for all my reviews! It means a lot to me! Sorry if I have not updated in a while, I just started singing lessons and I'm now apart of this six week theatre programme, so I've been really busy!**

**Disclaimer: not mine:(**

"No guys, it's called 'Give up the funk' but in parts you say 'Gotta have that funk' okay?" Rachel let out a frustrated sigh as she tried to teach Brittany and Finn the lyrics of the song. "Alright, just go," she dismissed them, gathering up her folder of sheet music. She sometimes wondered why she put so much effort into this glee club. Mr. Shuester should have been teaching Brittany and Finn this, but of course, he was busy with his divorce and no one else wanted to do it.

They were planning to funkify Vocal Adrenaline with a little number of their own, something they knew they couldn't do: funk. It was going to be immense, if only they actually put effort into learning the words and the choreography.

Rachel called her dads to inform them that she would be attending the local supermarket to get herself some more packs of herbal tea and voice spray. She couldn't risk loosing her precious voice in the next few weeks, it was what held 'New Directions' together. No one would verbally say it, but everyone knew that Rachel _isn't _replaceable, no matter how much they threaten her.

But, as she was driving, there was a thought irritating her mind, and that thought was: Jesse St. James. He was so rude to her, and even though she won't admit it, she has expected more from him, being such a talented performer. She thought they could bond over their talent and their struggles as future stars. She lost all the respect for him the moment his hurtful words left his lips, he was just another jerk that Rachel didn't need.

She pushed it to the back of her mind, where all of her problems were, as she pulled into the supermarket. She grabbed a trolley and idly began walking to the section where her voice spray is. But an overly excited voice made her dramatically slow down.

"Hey Mom! I'm so glad you called, because I just wanted to tell you the times for the showcase…" the voice trailed off, obviously listening to the other line. "Oh," the voice changed rapidly into a small, sad one. "But…what do you mean you can't?" the voice paused, "You promised," it cracked, before sighing, "Yeah, okay, fine, next time…okay," another pause, "bye," it whispered.

Rachel slyly walked slowly back to peek over the corner to see who the guy on the phone was. She silently gasped when she saw Jesse st. James closing his phone as well as his eyes. His face looked contorted with pain, and Rachel felt her heart wrench a little bit.

_**What **__was that, Rachel Berry? Jesse ISN'T a nice person, don't feel sorry for him! _She reprimanded herself.

She still felt bad.

"Are you okay?" she asked before she could stop herself, cringing at the stupidity of the question. Not only was it obvious that he was not okay, she had also now blown her cover.

Jesse's head snapped up and he glared at Rachel, putting his phone in his pocket.

"What does it matter to you?" Jesse practically growled at her, putting a couple of red bulls in his trolley and pushing it past her, walking speedily away. Rachel followed, pushing her own trolley as well.

"I mean, you don't _have _to tell me, but its not good to keep feelings in, they just bottle up until one day, they explode, and you know a lot of teenage suicides happen from not telling anyone their feelings, and-." A hand covering her mouth stopped Rachel from her ramble. She looked up to see Jesse's incredulously confused face.

Once Jesse was sure Rachel had shut up, he slowly took his hand down (ignoring the little tingly sensation from where he touched Rachel's _soft _lips – not that he liked it or anything), and began to push his trolley away, slower this time, so Rachel didn't have to rush.

"That…that was my mom. Sadly, her and my father is stuck in a very important critical situation in the middle of Dubai, and they are unfortunately unable to attend Vocal Adrenalines show case on Friday. But it's fine since she promised that they would be there for regionals, which is good I guess." So what if Jesse twisted the truth a little, Rachel didn't have to know everything.

"Oh…that must be disappointing," Rachel murmured, quickly grabbing a pack of lemons as they walked, "I'm sorry," she paused, to look at him, but he was just looking at the floor with an unreadable expression.

When he looked up again, his face was blank. Rachel didn't like the blankness, it made her wonder what was going on in the middle of that curly hair.

"I guess, but what can I do about it? They have to do what they have to do, as do I. 'The show must go on'" he quoted, and smiled softly down at Rachel, turning them down to the medical section, which worked out pretty well for her. She found herself standing there for a split second, in awe at the sight of his smile. She quickly recovered and followed him.

When they both reached for the last voice spray, they hesitated – their hands almost touching. Rachel began to feel her heart speeding up. These feelings were confusing her. She hadn't experienced anything like this. Especially for someone shes meant to hate.

"Uh…take it," Jesse moved his hand away quickly, his eyes flashing with an emotion Rachel could not place. "…Yeah, I mean, it's not like my voice needs it, unlike yours," Jesse fumbled with his words, "I don't even know why I'm wasting my time talking to you," he walked away before Rachel could say anything else. She just stood there, speechless, and watched him speed down the isles.

She felt hollow as she bought the voice spray and the other items, nothing but Jesse on her mind.

_What is _**wrong**_ with him? _She asked herself.

One minute he was all nice, and the next…he wasn't.

But she knew that what she saw of the nice Jesse was real…she just wasn't sure if she wanted to find out why he was being so defensive.

Did she want to keep feeling these feelings? Did she want to fraternize with the enemy?

She just wasn't sure.

**A/N – sorry if it's a little short, I have homework to do:) **

**Thanks for reading!**

**Reviews are always nice!**


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